It is widely known that the game of basketball was invented by Dr. James Naismith in 1891 as a means for providing off-season exercise for baseball and football players. Dr. Naismith reportedly climbed a ladder and hammered a bottomless peach basket to a balcony as the first basketball goal. The game of basketball rapidly gained popularity and is now one of the most widely-played games in the United States and the rest of the world.
The bottomless peach basket nailed to a balcony has long since been replaced by a goal consisting of a backboard, a rim, and a net, all of which are mounted on a pole or suspended in some other manner so that the top of the rim is exactly ten feet above the floor of the basketball court. The backboard is a flat, vertical piece of wood, metal, fiberglass, or acrylic plastic having a width of approximately six feet and a ;height of approximately four feet. The primary purposes of the backboard are to enable a-shooter to bank the basketball off the backboard through the rim and to help keep a ball from going out of bounds after a missed shot.
The rim is a circular metal ring having an inside diameter of 18 inches which is mounted horizontally to the lower portion of the backboard. The rim typically contains twelve equally-spaced hooks on its underside for supporting a net. Basketball nets are commonly made of cotton, nylon, or polyethylene cord interconnected in a diamond-shaped pattern to form a funnel. The net has an upper diameter of 18 inches, a lower diameter of about 6 to 10 inches, and a height (length) of about 12 to 18 inches. The net serves several important functions in the game. First of all, it slows the basketball as it passes down through the rim. Secondly, the net changes the trajectory of the ball so that it drops straight down from the goal rather than continuing in the direction it was shot. Thirdly, the net provide a visual aid to a player shooting a basketball. And fourthly, the net improves the ability of referees, players, and spectators to determine when the ball has passed through the rim (i.e., when a "basket" has been made).
While regulation basketball is played with five-man teams on a court with two goals at opposite ends, the game is often played with fewer players and on half courts. The popularity of the game has much to do with this flexibility. The game also has the advantage that its skills can be practiced by a player by himself. Every basketball player of skill has spent countless hours practicing shooting by himself. When a player misses a shot, it can bounce off the rim at virtually any angle about the 180.degree. arc defined by the backboard. Retrieving the ball takes time and reduces the amount of shots a player can practice in a given amount of time. Even if the player makes a shot, the player must usually move to retrieve the ball. Accordingly, it would be desirable if the ball would return to the player when a basket is made during shooting practice.
A large number of devices have been disclosed which attach to the rim and direct a basketball in one particular direction when a basket is made. Examples of such devices are found in Steele, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,543, issued Mar. 26, 1974; Spier, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,421, issued Jun. 4, 1974; Kershaw, U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,954, issued Nov. 17, 1987; Farkas, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,101, issued Jan. 19, 1988; and Kotlarz, U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,289, issued Sep. 18, 1990. These devices work well if a player wants to practice a shot from one direction, such as free throws. However, a player often likes to practice shooting from a variety of positions on the court. Rather than having the ball returned to one set spot, it would be much better if the ball were returned in the direction it was shot. There has heretofore been no device to accomplish this purpose.